History UsefulNotes / Pennsylvania

The state was founded by William Penn, a famous Quaker, in 1682 and its name means "Penn's Woods." However, it is not named for William Penn; or rather, it is not named for ''that'' William Penn. The land was given to Penn by UsefulNotes/CharlesII in satisfaction of a debt owed to Penn's ''father'', the Royalist Admiral Sir William Penn, for services during the UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar; the Quaker son would have preferred to call the territory "Sylvania" (for the woods) or "New Wales" (as many of the Quakers who had signed up to settle there were [[UsefulNotes/{{Wales}} Welsh]]), but His Majesty insisted on naming the land after the loyal admiral to whom the debt had been owed. (The Welsh ended up naming a bunch of towns west of Philadelphia, with the area becoming known as the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Tract Welsh Tract]].[[note]]The colonial origins of the Welsh names of these old towns later meant that having a house in a "Welsh" town was seen as posh in 19th- and early 20th-century Philadelphia high society, so some places gave themselves new Welsh or Welsh-sounding names to heighten their appeal. Of particular note is Berwyn, which renamed itself in 1877 after some hills in Denbighshire for exactly this purpose, and within 20 years had a suburb of UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} named after it because the ''Pennsylvania'' town was known for its beauty. (The Berwyn in Illinois is now substantially larger.)[[/note]])

* "Pennsyltucky": If you ask a Philadelphian or Pittsburgher to describe the area of Pennsylvania between its two largest cities, this will be your most common answer. In political circles, "Pennsyltucky" is typically avoided in favor of the less stereotype-ridden term "The T".[[note]]If you remove the counties in the Philly and Pittsburgh metros from a state map, you're left with something resembling a "T" with a fat middle.[[/note]] However, many who live in this region wear the Pennsyltucky label with pride. The stereotype is that this area is filled with nothing but cornfields, Amish, and racist hillbillies doing moonshine and/or crystal meth out of dilapidated farmhouses. While this perception isn't ''entirely'' unfounded, it doesn't tell the whole story either. Even describing it as "the large rural zone between the two big cities" does no justice to sizable cities such as Allentown, Erie, Scranton, state capital Harrisburg, and State College, the bubble in the middle which is home to [[UsefulNotes/PowerFiveConferneces Pennsylvania State University]] (better known as Penn State)[[note]]Penn State is not to be confused with just plain Penn (The University of Pennsylvania) an UsefulNotes/IvyLeague school in Philadelphia[[/note]]. The term "Pennsyltucky" exists, but the regions of PA outside Philly and Pittsburgh have plenty of their own distinctions, as you'll see below.

* "Pennsyltucky": If you ask a Philadelphian or Pittsburgher to describe the area of Pennsylvania between its two largest cities, this will be your most common answer. In political circles, "Pennsyltucky" is typically avoided in favor of the less stereotype-ridden term "The T".[[note]]If you remove the counties in the Philly and Pittsburgh metros from a state map, you're left with something resembling a "T" with a fat middle.[[/note]] However, many who live in this region wear the Pennsyltucky label with pride. The stereotype is that this area is filled with nothing but cornfields, Amish, and racist hillbillies doing moonshine and/or crystal meth out of dilapidated farmhouses. While this perception isn't ''entirely'' unfounded, it doesn't tell the whole story either. Even describing it as "the large rural zone between the two big cities" does no justice to sizable cities such as Allentown, Erie, Scranton, state capital Harrisburg, and State College, the bubble in the middle which is home to Pennsylvania State University aka Penn State[[note]]Penn State is not to be confused with just plain Penn, The University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school in Philadelphia[[/note]]. The term "Pennsyltucky" exists, but the regions of PA outside Philly and Pittsburgh have plenty of their own distinctions, as you'll see below.

* UsefulNotes/JoeBiden was born in Scranton and lived there until he was 11, when his father moved the family to Delaware; appropriately, the forecast that he had carried the state in the 2020 election put him over the top in the electoral college and made him President-elect. Since the part of Delaware he moved to (Wilmington) is part of the Philadelphia metro area, he maintained strong ties to Pennsylvania in general and Philadelphia in particular. He also further bound himself to the Keystone State when he married his second wife Jill, who mostly grew up in the Philly suburbs. Also, the headquarters of his 2020 campaign were in Philadelphia. As a result, Pennsylvanians--and particularly Philadelphians--tend to consider him "basically one of us" (as mentioned above). At the very least, he's well-known to be a fan of Philadelphia sports teams, particularly the [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague Eagles]] and [[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams Phillies]].

* UsefulNotes/JoeBiden was born in Scranton and lived there until he was 11, when his father moved the family to Delaware; appropriately, the forecast that he had carried the state in the 2020 election put him over the top in the electoral college and made him President-elect. Since the part of Delaware he moved to (Wilmington) is part of the Philadelphia metro area, he maintained strong ties to Pennsylvania in general and Philadelphia in particular. He also further bound himself to the Keystone State when he married his second wife Jill, who mostly grew up in the Philly suburbs. Also, the headquarters of his 2020 campaign were in Philadelphia. As a result, Pennsylvanians--and particularly Philadelphians--tend to consider him "basically one of us" (as mentioned above).

* Music/AsapRocky was born and mostly grew up in [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity Harlem]] but spent his teenage years in Harrisburg. (He went back to the Big Apple to make his career in music.)

* UsefulNotes/JoeBiden was born in Scranton and lived there until he was 11, when his father moved the family to Delaware; appropriately, the forecast that he had carried the state in the 2020 election put him over the top in the electoral college and made him President-elect. Since the part of Delaware he moved to (Wilmington) is part of the Philadelphia metro area, he maintained strong ties to Pennsylvania in general and Philadelphia in particular; the headquarters of his 2020 campaign were in Philadelphia. As a result, Pennsylvanians--and particularly Philadelphians--tend to consider him "basically one of us" (as mentioned above).

[[UsefulNotes/AmericanPoliticalSystem Politically]], as with most states, the urban areas of Pennsylvania tend to lean more liberal while the rural areas lean more conservative, with the suburban areas being a battleground. In recent years, this split has resulted in Pennsylvania being one of the most politically competitive states in the nation—its executives are mostly Democrat; its state legislature is split, with Republicans holding the state Senate and Democrats holding the state House; it had split its Senate seats until the Democrats flipped the GOP's seat in 2022; its House delegation was evenly split until the state lost a seat in the 2022 redistricting, with the Democrats now holding a one-seat majority; and it voted both for and against UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump. Despite the state's long history dating back to the founding of the country, it has only produced two US presidents; the first, UsefulNotes/JamesBuchanan, is generally considered to be one of the worst in the country's history at that. Many Pennsylvanians (to their credit) are not proud of him and prefer to point to Thaddeus Stevens (a major Republican figure of the same period and a fairly fire-breathing supporter of equality for Blacks) for the state's contribution to Civil War-era politics. Current President UsefulNotes/JoeBiden was born in Scranton and lived there (with brief sojourns in UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} and [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkState Long Island]] when he was a toddler) until his father moved the family to Wilmington, Delaware, the state he is most associated with, when he was 11. But since Wilmington is in the Philadelphia metro area and is one of the most Pennsylvania-like places not in Pennsylvania, many say he never really left. Also his wife and First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden,[[note]]His second wife, we should note. His first wife Neilia was from Upstate New York, but she died in a car crash in December 1972 (just weeks before he started his first term in the Senate).[[/note]] is a born-and-bred Philadelphian, adding to the Pennsylvania connection.[[note]]And for what it's worth, while Dwight Eisenhower was born in Texas and raised in Kansas, he and his wife Mamie bought a farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (near Camp Colt, where Eisenhower was given his first command position) after World War II. It was the first home that the Eisenhowers had ever owned, as they moved frequently during his career in the Army, and it was where the couple retired to following his tenure as president and where they both lived until their deaths. Coincidentally, Eisenhower's family was descended from Pennsylvania Dutch settlers.[[/note]]

[[UsefulNotes/AmericanPoliticalSystem Politically]], as with most states, the urban areas of Pennsylvania tend to lean more liberal while the rural areas lean more conservative, with the suburban areas being a battleground. In recent years, this split has resulted in Pennsylvania being one of the most politically competitive states in the nation—its executives are mostly Democrat; its state legislature is split, with Republicans holding the state Senate and Democrats holding the state House; it had split its Senate seats until the Democrats flipped the GOP's seat in 2022; its House delegation was evenly split until the state lost a seat in the 2022 redistricting, with the Democrats now holding a one-seat majority; and it voted both for and against UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump. Despite the state's long history dating back to the founding of the country, it has only produced two US presidents; the first, UsefulNotes/JamesBuchanan, is generally considered to be one of the worst in the country's history at that. Many Pennsylvanians (to their credit) are not proud of him and prefer to point to Thaddeus Stevens (a major Republican figure of the same period and a fairly fire-breathing supporter of equality for Blacks) for the state's contribution to Civil War-era politics. Current President UsefulNotes/JoeBiden was born in Scranton and lived there (with brief sojourns in UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} and [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkState Long Island]] when he was a toddler) until his father moved the family to Wilmington, Delaware, the state he is most associated with, when he was 11. But since Wilmington is in the Philadelphia metro area and is one of the most Pennsylvania-like places not in Pennsylvania, many say he never really left. [[note]]And for what it's worth, while Dwight Eisenhower was born in Texas and raised in Kansas, he and his wife Mamie bought a farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (near Camp Colt, where Eisenhower was given his first command position) after World War II. It was the first home that the Eisenhowers had ever owned, as they moved frequently during his career in the Army, and it was where the couple retired to following his tenure as president and where they both lived until their deaths. Coincidentally, Eisenhower's family was descended from Pennsylvania Dutch settlers.[[/note]]

* Chuck Daly, the late [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation NBA]] coach who was equally famous for being the head coach of the 1992 US Olympic men's team (the TropeNamers for Main/DreamTeam), was a native of the northwestern town of Kane.

* Greater UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}: AKA Southwest Pennsylvania. The second-largest city in the state, whose focal point is where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet to form the Ohio River. The region was formerly famous for steel mills until the plants started moving elsewhere for cheaper labor in the '70s. Today only a handful of such mills still exist in the area and none are in Pittsburgh proper. The region's economy is now based around healthcare, technology, education, and being a [[PoorMansSubstitute poor man's]] UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}} for hipsters who love the Pacific Northwest's rainy weather but not the cost of living. Culturally, the city can't be accurately described as East Coast or Midwestern, as it combines influences from both regions to form a distinct identity. Its influence spills over into UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}}, northern West Virginia, and the mountainous western tip of Maryland. The same way Philly has a rivalry with NYC, Pittsburgh's eternal nemesis is UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}}.

Ah, Pennsylvania, one of [[UsefulNotes/TheThirteenAmericanColonies the original 13 colonies]] and current sixth most populous state in the union. The "Keystone State"[[note]]No relation to the KeystoneArmy or CosmicKeystone...hopefully.[[/note]]; or, "The Quaker State". Often referred to by residents as "PA," the state's postal code, expect just about any media taking place here to be focused on the state's largest city of UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}}, with the occasional appearance of UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}. (There is also [[Series/TheOfficeUS that one show about office workers]] which made Scranton, the state's sixth most populous city, nationally known.) It borders the states of UsefulNotes/{{New York|State}} to the northeast, UsefulNotes/NewJersey to the east, Delaware and Maryland to the southeast, West Virginia to the southwest, and UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}} to the west.

* Music/A$APRocky was born and mostly grew up in [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity Harlem]] but spent his teenage years in Harrisburg. (He went back to the Big Apple to make his career in music.)

* Larry Holmes, the former boxing world heavyweight champion, hails from Easton and was known as "The Easton Assassin."

* Wrestling/BrittBaker, currently wrestling for Wrestling/{{A|llEliteWrestling}}EW (and [[HeAlsoDid also]] [[WrestlingDoesntPay practicing as a dentist]] on the side), was born and raised in Punxsutawney, also home to a certain ''very'' famous Film/{{groundhog|Day}}. The very first coaching job for the above-mentioned Chuck Daly was at the high school that Baker would attend decades later.

[[UsefulNotes/AmericanPoliticalSystem Politically]], as with most states, the urban areas of Pennsylvania tend to lean more liberal while the rural areas lean more conservative, with the suburban areas being a battleground. In recent years, this split has resulted in Pennsylvania being one of the most politically competitive states in the nation—its executives are mostly Democrat; its state legislature is split, with Republicans holding the state senate and Democrats holding the state house; it had split its Senate seats until the Democrats flipped the GOP's seat in 2022; its House delegation was evenly split until the state lost a seat in the 2022 redistricting, with the Democrats now holding a one-seat majority; and it voted both for and against UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump. Despite the state's long history dating back to the founding of the country, it has only produced two US presidents; the first, UsefulNotes/JamesBuchanan, is generally considered to be one of the worst in the country's history at that. Many Pennsylvanians (to their credit) are not proud of him and prefer to point to Thaddeus Stevens (a major Republican figure of the same period and a fairly fire-breathing supporter of equality for Blacks) for the state's contribution to Civil War-era politics. Current President UsefulNotes/JoeBiden was born in Scranton and lived there (with brief sojourns in UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} and [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkState Long Island]] when he was a toddler) until his father moved the family to Wilmington, Delaware, the state he is most associated with, when he was 11. But since Wilmington is in the Philadelphia metro area and is one of the most Pennsylvania-like places not in Pennsylvania, many say he never really left. [[note]]And for what it's worth, while Dwight Eisenhower was born in Texas and raised in Kansas, he and his wife Mamie bought a farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (near Camp Colt, where Eisenhower was given his first command position) after World War II. It was the first home that the Eisenhowers had ever owned, as they moved frequently during his career in the Army, and it was where the couple retired to following his tenure as president and where they both lived until their deaths. Coincidentally, Eisenhower's family was descended from Pennsylvania Dutch settlers.[[/note]]

[[UsefulNotes/AmericanPoliticalSystem Politically]], as with most states, the urban areas of Pennsylvania tend to lean more liberal while the rural areas lean more conservative, with the suburban areas being a battleground. In recent years, this split has resulted in Pennsylvania being one of the most politically competitive states in the nation—its executives are mostly Democrat; its state legislature is majority Republican; it had split its Senate seats until the Democrats flipped the GOP's seat in 2022; its House delegation was evenly split until the state lost a seat in the 2022 redistricting, with the Democrats now holding a one-seat majority; and it voted both for and against UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump. Despite the state's long history dating back to the founding of the country, it has only produced two US presidents; the first, UsefulNotes/JamesBuchanan, is generally considered to be one of the worst in the country's history at that. Many Pennsylvanians (to their credit) are not proud of him and prefer to point to Thaddeus Stevens (a major Republican figure of the same period and a fairly fire-breathing supporter of equality for Blacks) for the state's contribution to Civil War-era politics. Current President UsefulNotes/JoeBiden was born in Scranton and lived there (with brief sojourns in UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} and [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkState Long Island]] when he was a toddler) until his father moved the family to Wilmington, Delaware, the state he is most associated with, when he was 11. But since Wilmington is in the Philadelphia metro area and is one of the most Pennsylvania-like places not in Pennsylvania, many say he never really left. [[note]]And for what it's worth, while Dwight Eisenhower was born in Texas and raised in Kansas, he and his wife Mamie bought a farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (near Camp Colt, where Eisenhower was given his first command position) after World War II. It was the first home that the Eisenhowers had ever owned, as they moved frequently during his career in the Army, and it was where the couple retired to following his tenure as president and where they both lived until their deaths. Coincidentally, Eisenhower's family was descended from Pennsylvania Dutch settlers.[[/note]]

[[UsefulNotes/AmericanPoliticalSystem Politically]], as with most states, the urban areas of Pennsylvania tend to lean more liberal while the rural areas lean more conservative, with the suburban areas being a battleground. In recent years, this split has resulted in Pennsylvania being one of the most politically competitive states in the nation; its executives are mostly Democrat, its state legislature is majority Republican, its Senate and House delegations are evenly split, and it voted both for and against UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump. Despite the state's long history dating back to the founding of the country, it has only produced two US presidents; the first, UsefulNotes/JamesBuchanan, is generally considered to be one of the worst in the country's history at that. Many Pennsylvanians (to their credit) are not proud of him and prefer to point to Thaddeus Stevens (a major Republican figure of the same period and a fairly fire-breathing supporter of equality for Blacks) for the state's contribution to Civil War-era politics. Current President UsefulNotes/JoeBiden was born in Scranton and lived there (with brief sojourns in UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} and [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkState Long Island]] when he was a toddler) until his father moved the family to Wilmington, Delaware, the state he is most associated with, when he was 11. But since Wilmington is in the Philadelphia metro area and is one of the most Pennsylvania-like places not in Pennsylvania, many say he never really left. [[note]]And for what it's worth, while Dwight Eisenhower was born in Texas and raised in Kansas, he and his wife Mamie bought a farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (near Camp Colt, where Eisenhower was given his first command position) after World War II. It was the first home that the Eisenhowers had ever owned, as they moved frequently during his career in the Army, and it was where the couple retired to following his tenure as president and where they both lived until their deaths. Coincidentally, Eisenhower's family was descended from Pennsylvania Dutch settlers.[[/note]]

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Demuth Charles Demuth]], founding painter of the early-20th-century Precisionist school, was born and raised in Lancaster, to which he repeatedly returned after long sojourns in more exciting places like Philadelphia and Paris (yes, the French one). He even went so far as to call Lancaster County "the Province", likening it to Provençe in the south of France as a source of artistic inspiration. (That said, he's most famous for "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Saw_the_Figure_5_in_Gold I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold]]", a visual interpretation of his old friend and [=UPenn=] classmate Creator/WilliamCarlosWilliams's poem meditating on the passing of an NYC fire engine.)

*** Harrisburg, as the state capital, is associated with incompetent and/or corrupt state officials and boredom, although the 2010s gave its downtown enough amenities (particularly breweries and restaurants) to qualify as "kind of cute, in a dinky-state-capital kind of way." Also, Hershey (home to the chocolate factory and the amusement park) is just outside Harrisburg; Hersheypark (a Hershey's-themed ThemePark) is a major regional attraction.

*** York is mostly rural except for the titular city. Expect to see the title "First Capital" appended to many businesses as York styles itself the "First Capital of the United States" due to it was in York that the Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, which served as the United States' first constitution

*** York is mostly rural except for the titular city.

* Greater UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}: AKA Southwest Pennsylvania. The second-largest city in the state, whose focal point is where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet to form the Ohio River. The region was formerly famous for steel mills until the plants started moving elsewhere for cheaper labor in the '70s. Today only a handful of such mills still exist in the area and none are in Pittsburgh proper. Today, the region's economy is now based around healthcare, technology, education, and being a [[PoorMansSubstitute poor man's]] UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}} for hipsters who love the rainy weather but not the cost of living. Culturally, the city can't be accurately described as East Coast or Midwestern, as it combines influences from both regions to form a distinct identity. Its influence spills over into UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}}, northern West Virginia, and the mountainous western tip of Maryland. The same way Philly has a rivalry with NYC, Pittsburgh's eternal nemesis is UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}}.

* Greater UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}: AKA Southwest Pennsylvania. The second-largest city in the state, whose focal point is where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet to form the Ohio River. The region was formerly famous for steel mills until the plants started moving elsewhere for cheaper labor in the 70's. Today only a handful of such mills still exist in the area and none are in Pittsburgh proper. Today, the region's economy is now based around healthcare, technology, education, and being a [[PoorMansSubstitute poor man's]] UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}} for hipsters who love the rainy weather but not the cost of living. Culturally, the city can't be accurately described as East Coast or Midwestern, as it combines influences from both regions to form a distinct identity. Its influence spills over into UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}}, northern West Virginia, and the mountainous western tip of Maryland. The same way Philly has a rivalry with NYC, Pittsburgh's eternal nemesis is UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}}.

* Greater UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}: AKA Southwest Pennsylvania. The second-largest city in the state, situated where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet to form the Ohio River, making for a very pretty triangular park. Formerly famous for steel mills; now famous for healthcare, education, and being a [[PoorMansSubstitute poor man's]] UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}} for hipsters who love the rainy weather but not the cost of living. Definitely more Midwestern than Eastern; its influence spills over into UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}}, northern West Virginia, and the mountainous western tip of Maryland. The same way Philly has a rivalry with NYC, Pittsburgh's eternal nemesis is UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}}.

Ah, Pennsylvania, one of [[UsefulNotes/TheThirteenAmericanColonies the original 13 colonies]] and current sixth most populous state in the union. The "Keystone State"[[note]]No relation to the KeystoneArmy or CosmicKeystone...hopefully.[[/note]]; or, "The Quaker State". Often referred to by residents as "PA," the state's postal code, expect just about any media taking place here to be focused on the state's largest city of UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}}, with the occasional appearance of UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}. (There is also [[Series/TheOfficeUS that one show about office workers]] which made Scranton, the state's sixth most populous city, nationally known.)